This invention relates to apparatus for cutting a continuously travelling web of paper fabric, etc. into sheets, labels, tags, etc. of predetermined size and for stacking such sheets, etc.
Apparatus for cutting a continuously travelling web into separate items, such as sheets, labels, tags, etc. (hereinafter sometimes collectively identified as "sheets") are well known in the art. Similarly, it is known in the art to vertically stack such items as they are bottom fed to the stack. See, for example, U.S. Pats. Nos. 3,601,265; 3,671,034; 3,834,290; 4,067,568 and 4,384,782.
When the web bears spaced areas of printing, it is desirable to have a stand alone machine to which the web, which is continuously fed to the printing machine, can be continuously fed and which will cut the web intermediate the printed areas and stack the resulting separate sheets. Cutting and stacking machines which can perform such functions are known in the art, but have several disadvantages.
In prior art machines, the design of the cutting knife was such that when the material of the web is changed, e.g. from card stack to fabric, it was necessary to change the entire knife assembly which is time consuming and unacceptable.
In prior art machines, the sheets, which are horizontal when cut, are conveyed by belts to stripping fingers where the sheets are tipped so that the major surfaces thereof extend vertically, and the sheets are collected in a horizontally extending stack. The stripper finger assembly was intended to slide, as the stack grew larger, under the pressure of the sheets, but with tags and depending upon the size and shape of the tags, the stripper finger assembly did not always function properly with such pressure so that the stack would tip or move sideways causing the tags to become out of order.
In addition, such horizontal stacking increased the horizontal size of the machine and required a longer stacking tray for the same quantity of sheets than is required with vertical stacking.
Also, in prior art machines and with tags, the rotation of the knife would cause "throwing" of the tags, and it was necessary to use catch rollers positioned in accordance with the tag length. Accordingly, when the length of the tag changed, it was necessary to reposition the catch rollers, and the size and location of the horizontal stacking apparatus was such that a simple hold-down roller could not be used.